Fork Brewing wins inaugural Champion Small NZ Brewery

Inner city Wellington brewery, Fork Brewing, has won the Brewers Guild of New Zealand title of Champion Small New Zealand Brewery.¬†¬†

The New Zealand Brewers Guild Beer Awards were held in Nelson last Saturday, but Fork Brewing‚Äôs sole brewer, Kelly Ryan, was in Wellington watching the All Blacks‚Äô narrow loss against South Africa.

‚ÄúWe were walking back to the car when my and my partner‚Äôs phones just started blowing up with messages. ‚ÄėCongratulations!‚Äô ‚ÄėWell done!‚Äô ‚ÄėYou did it!‚Äô‚ÄĚ said Mr. Ryan.¬†

‚ÄúWe were, like, ‚ÄėFor what?!‚Äô We had no idea until someone clarified. You just don‚Äôt want to make assumptions!‚ÄĚ¬†

The win was a coup for the small inner city brewery, which sits within Bond Street brewpub, Fork and Brewer. Though the brew team is made up of the sole brewer, Mr. Ryan, Fork Brewing is unique in that it has 40 of its own beers on tap, including all 9 of their medal winning beers (a feat unmatched in New Zealand, and possibly globally), and brews around 65,000 litres a year on site.¬†

¬†Kelly Ryan says¬†‚ÄúI‚Äôm really stoked for our small team. Everyone plays their part, our crew who work hard selling beer and educating the customers and making sure we get a great variety of beer to good people. It‚Äôs such a cool reward.‚ÄĚ

Fork Brewing has also only recently taken four of its beers to retail for the first time in August, under the name Fork Brewcorp, selling in 500ml bottles, launching at Beervana. All four beers won medals at the awards, along with an additional five beers from the brewpubs' range.

Colin Mallon, one of the Directors of the brewery was in Nelson to collect the award said ‚ÄúWe are absolutely delighted, with the continual rise in the range and quality of beer available in New Zealand, this is a fantastic result for the brewery‚ÄĚ. He continued by adding "With our recent launch into bottles, this win is great timing, and we look forward to working hard to supply all the customers who have been asking where they can get our beers".

The win was also a welcome respite after multiple kegs of Fork Brewing‚Äôs beers, put aside for the Brewers Guild Awards, were stolen from its offsite storage in 2016.

The title of Champion Medium New Zealand Brewery was also won by another Wellington brewery, Parrotdog, whilst Champion Large New Zealand Brewery was won by Lion Breweries.¬†